KRAYER WAS ASLEEP on the tarp and Webb waited for what appeared to be a long time. Then he got up and moved as silently as he could over the jungle floor. He walked out on the beach and felt the beginning of hope. He kept telling himself all the time that there was no need for him to be sick if she didn’t make it to the cave tonight. There would be a hundred reasons why she could not. But then he knew there would be only one reason: Alfred Krayer.
Walking on the beach, he wondered if he was going to be able to stand it if she didn’t come. He walked slowly because that way he would not have to wait so long at the mouth of the cave.
He reached the lagoon, circled it, pushed aside the fern and heard a whisper inside. He stopped, frozen.
“Webb.” It was Fran. He moved into the cave and held her, feeling her shiver. “It took you so long to get here.”
“How did you get here so fast?”
“I wanted you,” she said with her mouth against his. “I wanted you more than you wanted me.”
She was still trembling when they lay down, close together in the dark warm cave.
“Are you afraid?” he said.
She nodded, laughing, hysteria under her laughter, her face close against his. “I’m afraid of everything.”
“He’ll never find us here.”
“If he wakes up, he’ll know.”
“He knows anyway. He thinks he knows.”
“If we could only have gotten away,” she said. “I wouldn’t have been afraid on the raft with you.”
He put his hands against her face, stroked her hair and her cheeks and her throat. He felt the pulse at the base of her throat, felt her warm tears and the hotness of her mouth.
His hands moved her dress, pulling it from her, and he felt her stiffen, felt her body quiver and grow rigid.
He spoke against her mouth. “What’s the matter?”
“I’m afraid. I may not be what you want. I may not love you right. I never knew about being in love until on the raft — with you.”
“Don’t you want me to love you?”
“Oh yes! I can’t stand it if you don’t hurry. It’s just that I’m afraid. Please understand me. Just now I’m afraid of everything.”
“You don’t have to be afraid of me.”
“But I do. I want you to love me. But I don’t know enough about making you love me.”
She stopped talking and moved her hands over him, pressing them hard and flat against him, as though she had been longing just to touch him for a long time, and now touching him she found him good and hard and strong. He felt her breath against him. She was breathing so heavily she could not speak. She kept pressing herself closer to him.
She was quivering and he held her tighter, moving her against him. “Didn’t you ever love anyone but Alfred?”
“No one…. I never loved Alfred.” Her breathing slowed and she slumped in his arms. “It was never good with him. Never. Not even at the first. He never — Do you care if I say this, Webb? He never … satisfied me. It angered him and he hated me for it.”
“Don’t talk.”
“It was like something evil happening to me. After a while I didn’t want it and I’d fight him. Not really — but in a hundred ways. But he knew I was fighting and that made him worse.”
“You’re with me now.”
“I love you.”
He felt her heart beating wildly against his heart, felt her arms moving wildly over him, her nails digging into him, and her teeth biting him wherever they found him.
• • •
She left the cave first. They listened for a long time at the lagoon. Then when the moment came for her to go, she didn’t want to go. She spun around on her heel and locked her arms around him.
“I love you.”
“For God’s sake, be careful.”
“Promise me nothing will happen. You’ll bring me back here again … soon.”
“Always.”
“He’ll never find us in the cave.”
“Never.”
She laughed, shivering. “Think. He’d look for us. All over the island. He might go crazy and never find us.”
“You’ve got to go now. You should never have stopped here outside the cave.”
She clung to him. “I can’t help it. You’re wonderful. You’re what I’ve always been looking for.”
“Please go quickly.”
“May I come back? Soon?”
“Anytime you want to,” he said.
“Wait for me. I’ll be there in fifteen minutes.”
Suddenly she was gone, moving like a wraith into the gray darkness about the lagoon. He let her get ahead of him where he still could see her. Then he followed, trembling, knowing he was going to die if Krayer stopped her tonight out there on that beach.
• • •
Krayer was still asleep when Webb moved through the foliage from the windward side of the island and sank down on his tarp. He could see Fran. She was sitting beside the sprawled and snoring Krayer. Her legs were drawn up and arms were locked about her knees. She was staring at Webb through the soft dark. He could almost see her smiling….
Fran was singing the next morning. Krayer snarled at her, but not even his snarling bothered her. She smiled at him and he frowned, getting white about his mouth. He stared at her and kept a wary eye on her all morning. Something was wrong and he knew it, but he didn’t know what in hell it was.
At noon that day, Fran managed a moment alone with Webb. She whispered, “Go to the cave tonight.”
“We can’t. It’s too soon. He suspects.”
“Can’t help it.” Her voice was blithe. “I know what waits for me in that cave. I’m not going to stay away from it.”
“It’s not the answer, angel.”
“I don’t want answers. I want you. Even if he wakes up, he can’t find us.”
“All right. I’ll be there. But be careful. For God’s sake be careful.”
“Careful? Darling, for you I’d walk through glass in my barefeet and never whimper.” She smiled….
He went to the cave. He waited there until dawn, but she didn’t come. When he slipped back into the clearing and lay down, he heard her moving restlessly on the tarp. When she stirred, Krayer sat up, wide awake in the darkness.
All that day, Fran was busy. Her face was white and set, taut with tension. She never looked at Webb, nor did she attempt to be alone with him even for a second. She went fishing with Krayer, made him stalk three birds all over the island until he was able to kill them with his arrow.
That night by moon-up Krayer was snoring. Webb left the clearing swiftly, not even bothering to be quiet about it.